I Could Kill You For This, Fox Mulder
by Gillian Leigh
Summary: Scully POV while Mulder's gone. *Chapter 14 up! Now Complete!!*
1. Chapter 1

Title: I Could Kill You For This, Fox Mulder.

Author: Gillian Leigh

Disclaimer: Do I look like Chris Carter? Didn't think so...

POV: Scully

Feedback: PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE! twistedmoonbeam8@hotmail.com

-X-

'I could kill you for this, Fox Mulder, I really could. First, you had to go and get abducted. I was angry, scared, and depressed. I had our child to think of, and the whole time I was worried about if I'd ever see you again. Then you came back to me, back to us. Now we have a son, a beautiful, healthy little boy. Our William. Our miracle. 

The four months after he was born were the most wonderful of my life. I had you, the first love of my life, and our son, the second. We spent every waking moment together, not knowing how long the peace would last. Every day, the thought remained in the backs of our minds, that this could be our last instant together before you had to leave. 

And one day, you did. You told me that you had to leave the next day. There were tears, and laughs as we talked about anything and everything, as we remembered the past; we dared not speak of the future. I don't think we slept at all that night, waiting for the sun to come up. Waiting for the time to say good bye. 

Now I wait for your emails, confirmation that you're doing okay, wherever you are. I watch our son grow. It amazed me, as I know it amazed you, when I found out I was pregnant *again*. Our children would be just over a year apart. In your response to my email, I could hear your voice, and see your face. But the pictures in my memory aren't enough, Mulder. I want you to come home. Will wants you home too. Our son needs his daddy. 

Well, Mulder, you've gone and done it. You've really outdone yourself this time. The thought of having to raise two children without you was frightening enough, but I went to the doctor this morning, for my five month check-up, and they did a sonogram. There were two heartbeats. Twins, Mulder. We're having twins. Two more boys. I could kill you for this, Fox Mulder, for getting me pregnant with twins, and leaving me. But I love you, and I understand that you're out there saving the world. If, (and it pains me to even think this) you don't come home, some day I'll be able to tell our sons that their daddy saved the world. But I'd like for you to be here to tell them with me, Mulder. I'd like for you to be here to recount every adventure of how you stopped the big bad aliens, and watch their shining eyes as they dare not disbelieve a word you say. I'd love for you to be here to assure them that there are indeed little green men, and that there are things bigger than ourselves to believe in. You made me believe, Fox Mulder, and there are some days I believed I could kill you for it.'

Scully sighed as she read the email she'd sent Mulder three weeks ago. Still no response. She worried. She rubbed her stomach, trying to calm the twins' kicking. Nothing seemed to calm them, lately; they'd been on edge like she had. There was even a change in William, who was the most laid-back baby one could ever hope to see. He slept less, cried more, and wasn't easily comforted. Mulder's children knew something, and Scully feared what it could be. The apartment was silent. She listened to the rain, and sighed, her eyes transfixed on the computer screen. 

A knock at the door brought her out of her stupor, and she rose stiffly and walked toward it . She'd been sitting in one position for too long, and she shuffled across her apartment, but apparently she was taking too long for whoever it was, and the pounding grew louder. She managed to sprint the rest of the way to the door, thinking that it was probably John Doggett, who forgot that she had a child who would be asleep at this hour. 

She unlocked the door and pulled it open, prepared to be pissed off at whoever had almost woken William. She nearly fainted when she saw who stood on the other side. 

"Mulder?" she whispered, feeling shocked. He stood before her, all six feet of Fox Mulder, dripping wet, covered in mud, and bleeding from a small cut above his eyebrow, but he looked triumphant, and he said, 

"I saved the world, Scully." Her jaw dropped open, and tears sprung to her eyes, as she wrapped her arms around him. She laughed and cried at the same time, still disbelieving that he was back, and that they could have a "normal" life. "And for future reference, aliens are gray, not green." 

-X-

A/N: It could be the end....unless you want more.....


	2. Chapter 2

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Title: Chapter 2 - The Sun Shines Through The Rain

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Author: Gillian Leigh

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Summary: The saga continues...

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Disclaimer: Come on, people, we all know who they belong to. I'm just borrowing them.

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Author's Notes: Wow. I hadn't planned on continuing this story, but the response has made me change my mind. The reviews were great motivators, and I'll keep continuing as long as you want me to. Because I can't think of something as X-Files-worthy as Chris Carter would probably come up with, I'm going to leave the details of how our beloved Mulder saved the world up to you, the readers :op. (Besides, it'll probably be in one of those X-Files movies they plan on making. ) 

-X-

Mulder sat on the couch, now in dry clothing. Scully hovered over him, having gotten over her shock enough to tend to the cut on his forehead, which seemed, amazingly, to be the only injury he sustained. She butterfly-stitched the cut, and placed a bandage over it. Mulder winced as she put pressure on it. 

"Sorry," Scully whispered, kissing the spot. He watched as she walked away to put her suture kit and medical bag. She returned moments later, having checked on William, and sat beside him on the couch without a word. 

Mulder studied her quietly. She looked beautiful, he thought, even with all she'd been through. Her emails had told him that she'd missed the sound of his voice, and he'd missed hers too, but so far he'd done most of the talking. During the entire recap of his adventures and misadventures, she'd asked only one or two shaky questions, forever on the verge of tears. 

"Mulder, do you...do you -uh- want something to drink?" Scully asked, rising slowly from the couch. 

"Sure, let me help you," he said, rising after her, and followed as she waddled into the kitchen. She turned the kettle off on the stove, and got two mugs out of the cabinet. She poured the hot chocolate mix into them, and stirred. 

"Marshmallows?" she asked. Mulder nodded, but watched her with concern. She was keeping the walls up. Making herself unreachable. He touched her arm, and said, 

"Scully, it's only me now, you can let the walls down." She looked up at him, seeming ready to object, but her lips quivered, and the tears in the corners of her eyes fell. She covered her eyes and began to sob. Mulder put his arms around her, and rubbed her back. 

"It's alright, Scully. The world is ours, now. It's safe for our children, and for us," he said, quietly. Scully's head was buried into his chest, but he could still hear her when she said, 

"I was so scared, Mulder. Terrified." She stepped back a little and looked at him. "It was worse than when you were abducted. It was worse knowing than not knowing. Every day I wondered if you'd ever come back to me," she continued, trying hard to keep her voice steady. 

"I'm so sorry, Scully, so, so sorry," Mulder said, kissing the top of her head. 

"Don't apologize, Mulder. What you've done is something I can never begin to thank you enough for. The entire world owes you its thanks," Scully said. "I'm just glad you're home. I love you so much," she continued, rising up on her toes to kiss him. 

"I love you too," Mulder replied, smiling. Scully laughed. 

"Skinner'll be glad to know you're home too. He was getting tired of me coming to his office to cry, and calling him at all hours of the night to do the same," she said, pulling a tissue from her pocket and drying her eyes. 

"Spending personal time with Skinner? Now, Scully, I'm not sure I know what to make of that...." Mulder said, grinning at her. 

"Oh, shut up," she replied, backhanding him. She yawned, and looked at her watch. It was nearly two in the morning. 

"Wow, I didn't realize it was so late. We talked forever," she said. "Let's get some sleep. I'll call Skinner in the morning and tell him I won't be in." The hot chocolate was abandoned, left on the counter in Scully's mottled blue mugs to solidify and stain them. Scully grabbed her pajamas and headed into the bathroom to brush her teeth and remove her makeup. Mulder stripped down to his undershirt and boxers, and climbed into the side of Scully's bed that had become his. 

Scully came out momentarily, with her hair pulled into a messy ponytail. She wore her satin pajamas, which hardly fit anymore. She climbed into bed, and the two spooned up and Mulder put his arms around her. 

"It feels good to be home," Mulder said. He paused for a moment and said, "Scully, where are we going to put them?"

"Put who? The twins?" 

"Yeah." 

"I hadn't thought about it. We have four months to figure it out," she replied, and yawned. "Don't worry about that, Mulder. You need to sleep. I know that you haven't gotten nearly enough lately, and we have to go see my mom tomorrow, so you'll need all the rest you can get." Mulder kissed her on the cheek, and settled down into the bed to sleep. 

The sound of the ringing phone woke Scully at 6:30 the next morning. With a loud grumble she pulled herself out of her very comfortable, very Mulder-filled bed. Why wasn't the phone by the bed? It was *always* by the bed! She continued grumbling as she searched the living room and found the cordless phone sitting on the coffee table. 

"Scully." She answered, sounding (and feeling) overly hostile. She'd been looking forward to sleeping in with Mulder. 

"Scully, it's Skinner."

"I was just going to call you. What is it, Sir?" she asked, stifling a yawn. 

"I need you to come in as early as possible today. It's important," Skinner said, sounding wide awake, and slightly stressed. 

"I can't, Sir."

"Why not? Scully, it's important that you do." Scully walked over to the window and looked out. The rain had stopped, and the sun was finally shining. 

"Sir, Mulder came home last night," she said, giving a small smile. 

"What?!" 

"He's back. Sir, Mulder saved the world," Scully said, feeling her grin grow larger. 

"Oh my God. How?! When?!" Skinner asked, sounding astonished. 

"I'll -um- let him give you the finer details, but for now, he's sleeping, and I intend to let him stay that way. Is it possible that this can wait until tomorrow, Sir?" Scully asked, walking into the kitchen and pouring herself orange juice. 

"I'm sorry, Agent Scully, this can't wait." Scully was growing very aggravated. The first day Mulder was home, and Skinner wanted her to come into work early. 

"I can be in by 9. Sir, I don't want Mulder to have to be here alone with Will. He's exhausted, both physically and mentally," Scully said. 

"Have him come with you. This concerns him as well, I'm afraid," Skinner replied. This struck Scully as odd. 

"I'll have to leave William with my mother then," she said, and sighed. 

"Alright. Thank you, Scully. Nine o'clock is fine. I'll see you and Mulder then." Scully hung up, and after setting the phone down momentarily, she picked it up again and dialed her mother's number. 

"Hello?"

"Sorry, Mom, did I wake you?"

"No, no, sweetheart, I was up."

"Oh, ok good. Um, Mom, I was wondering if you could watch Will for me at nine today?"

"Of course, dear. I was expecting that you'd be dropping him off in an hour. Why nine o'clock today?"

"Skinner made an exception. Mom, a very unexpected, but very welcome 'someone' showed up at my door last night." 

"Who?"

"Mom, Mulder came home," she said. Maggie inhaled sharply on the other end. 

"He's home?! That's wonderful! How is he?"

"He's exhausted, and rightfully so. He's sleeping for now," Scully said. She heard Will crying in his crib, and said, 

"Mom, Will just woke up. I've got to go get him before he wakes Mulder." 

"Bye dear. See you at nine."

"Bye, Mom," Scully said, setting the phone down and hurrying to Will's room. She rushed in and found Mulder holding Will, rocking him back and forth. He looked at her and smiled. 

"Mulder, I'll take him, you need your rest," Scully said, extending her arms. Mulder shook his head. 

"I'm fine, Scully. You're the one who needs to rest. You shouldn't be taking care of him all by yourself. You're too stressed for your own good anyway. For now, you need to concentrate on taking care of yourself and the twins," he replied, still rocking William. Scully sighed. 

"Mulder, you just saved the entire *world* I think you deserve the rest more than I do." 

"I think we *both* deserve rest, so what do you say we go back to bed? We'll take Will with us," he said. 

"We're both going in to see Skinner at 9. He didn't say why, but he just told me it was important. I've got a feeling it has something to do with the X-Files, since he wants to see you," Scully said, and yawned.

"Come on, back to bed with you," he said, and pushed her toward the bedroom. Scully smiled as she climbed back into bed, and accepted William from Mulder, who then climbed into bed. Will reached his arms out for his dad, and Scully smiled as Will nestled into his father's arms. His thumb found his mouth, and he drifted off to sleep. She reached over and reset the alarm, and then moved in as closely to Mulder as the three children that separated them would allow. Mulder snaked his arm around her waist, and kissed her forehead. Scully stared into his eyes and watched him fall asleep, unable to fall asleep herself. 

When Will began moving an hour later, Scully took him and crept out of bed. She still had a half an hour before Mulder would be up, and she carried her nine-month old son on her hip to the kitchen to get his bottle. 

"William Fox, you're getting too big for this," she said, sticking the bottle in his mouth. He held onto it for her, and she moved to the cabinet to get a jar of food. "Or maybe it's your brothers who are getting too big too fast," she sighed, shifting Will on her hip. After he'd sucked down the entire eight ounces of formula, she placed him in his high chair and began feeding him the food from the jar. 

"Bananas, Will, your favorite," she said, smiling at her son. While she fed him, she made a series of ridiculous faces at him that all mothers made at their children. She'd stuck out her tongue and crossed her eyes, making Will laugh heartily. She heard another laugh, and looked up to find Mulder standing there, with his arms crossed, laughing at her. 

"What?" she asked, returning her face to normal. When Will stuck his tongue out at her however, she couldn't resist doing it back, and their son giggled. 

"I wish you could see how ridiculous that face looked," Mulder said, walking over to her and kissing her on the cheek. 

"It's good to see you're feeling like yourself today," she said, rising out of the chair, and taking the jar and spoon away from Will, who would begin to do evil things with them momentarily if left within his reach. 

"I've never felt better, Scully. It's just good to be home with you, and Will," Mulder said, kissing her neck. She sighed as he put his arms around her waist, and lightly sucked at patches of skin on her neck and shoulders. 

"Fox Mulder, things like this are the reasons our children will be thirteen months apart," she laughed. He laughed too.

"I'm sorry. I just can't help it when I get to come home to the most beautiful woman in the world," he said, stepping in front of her and placing his lips on hers. When he drew her into him, one of the twins kicked at him defiantly. Mulder laughed. 

"You're squishing them. They hate to have their space invaded," she said, sighing as the other baby began kicking as well. 

"They hate when I drive...they kick at the seatbelt constantly," she added, rolling her eyes. She poked the spot where the first baby was kicking and said, 

"Hey, quit it in there." He defiantly kicked back. Scully and Mulder both laughed. 


	3. Chapter 3

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Title: Chapter 3- The Office of the Assistant Director

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Author: Gillian Leigh

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Disclaimer: They're not mine. I'm not making any money. Please don't sue me.

-X-

At 8:59 exactly, the pair strolled through the doors and metal detector just like they always had. No one else in the building knew they were in the presence of a hero. Someone their children, and their children's children would owe their lives to. As Mulder walked beside her, he couldn't help staring at her. He loved the way Scully looked when she was pregnant. She glowed. As much as she hated all of it, he loved to watch her waddle when she walked, and he loved the fact that all these fascinating changes in her came because she was having his children. Skinner saw them coming down the hallway and immediately pulled them into his office. 

"Mulder, Scully, sit down, please." Mulder looked at him.

"I'm fine to stand, Sir." 

"I am as well," Scully said, ever-so-slightly shifting her weight. Even though he had been home for less than twenty-four hours, he could tell that even being on her feet for the shortest amount of time was uncomfortable for Scully. He didn't argue with her, however. He'd told her she shouldn't be on her feet countless times when she was pregnant with Will, and all it did was start an argument between them, which Scully always managed to win. Skinner was just looking at them, and Mulder interjected.

"Sir, what was it you needed to see us about?" Skinner looked slightly dazed. 

"You really did it? You really saved the world?" he asked. Scully smiled at Mulder, content to sink into one of Skinner's chairs, knowing this would be a rather lengthy story. 

With that, Skinner checked to make sure his door was locked, and Mulder launched into the tale of how he saved the world. Scully, having heard the story before, fell asleep. She awoke to hear Mulder concluding, 

"...and that's exactly what happened." Skinner's jaw was hanging open. 

"Wow. I don't know how to thank you, Mulder." 

"You don't have to, Sir. I understand. What I did had to be done. I did it for Scully, and for our children. I did it so Will can live to see his twelfth birthday, and so the twins can see theirs as well." Skinner looked awed, but his expression became more serious and he cleared his throat. 

"I'm glad to have the two of you here. Word came down to me that Agents Doggett and Reyes will no longer be assigned to the X-Files. After the fiasco of a case that they investigated last month, they've both been remediated and reassigned. Agent Reyes is being transferred to Salt Lake City, and Agent Doggett will remain here, and work in Domestic Terrorism." Scully was deeply affected by this. With Mulder out of the Bureau, and her impending maternity leave, there would be no one for the X-Files, and Kersh could, and would, indeed lock that door forever. 

"Sir, I can stay as long as possible, while you work to find replacement Agents. If necessary I can do paperwork from home. I'd be just a phone call away if I was ever needed," Scully began. Skinner shook his head. 

"No, Scully, you're not going to stay any longer than your doctor deems is healthy. I will not have you put yourself at risk for work. Unless we can find you an adequate new partner for you, and a temporary replacement for you inside of two months... it's not looking good, Agent." 

"This is the end, isn't it? The end of the X-Files?" Scully asked quietly. Skinner didn't respond. 

"Scully, I don't want you to worry about rushing back to work." She looked at Mulder. 

"Sir, actually, Mulder and I were talking, last night, and I'm not sure I'll be returning to the FBI after the babies are born." 

"Well, I can't say that I'm surprised. You should do whatever is best for you," he replied. Scully nodded, surprised to feel tears forming in her eyes. Mulder put his arm around her and kissed her forehead. 

"It's really the end, isn't it?" Mulder asked. 

"I'm afraid it is," Skinner replied. 

"If you don't mind, I'd like to visit it one last time," he said. Skinner nodded.

"Of course. You can pack up anything there that's still yours, Mulder." Both the former agent, and the soon-to-be-former agent rose from the couch, and shook hands with the Assistant Director before heading down to the office, for what would be the last time for both. 

Scully faxed Skinner her letter of resignation the next day.


	4. Chapter 4

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Title: Chapter 4 -The Normal Life

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Author: Gillian Leigh

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Disclaimer: Don't own them.

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Summary: A new house, some old furniture, and a certain poster make the start of a new, "normal" life. 

-X-

With two more children on the way, and no place to put them, Mulder and Scully bought a house on the outskirts of Georgetown; the more rural section. Will would be able to grow up there and have an actual backyard to play in with his little brothers.

"And what about a sister or two?" Mulder asked of a frustrated, hugely pregnant Scully as they unpacked the boxes in their kitchen. She glared at him, and he put his hands up, and said, 

"Alright, alright. We won't talk about that now." She couldn't help smiling at the innocent-looking expression he wore, and she rose up on her tip-toes, [clearly this had become somewhat of a chore] and kissed him. She turned back to her unpacking, and Mulder massaged her shoulders. 

"Mmm, that feels good," she said. 

"So, Dana, I've been doing a lot of thinking lately..." he paused, waiting for a comment from her. Nothing came. "We've been best friends for nine years now, and you've been all I've ever wanted, all I've needed. So what do you think about making everything official?" He'd never seen Scully move so fast in her entire life. She looked up at him, her eyes wide. 

"You're serious?"

"I've never been more serious in my entire life. Say you'll marry me, Dana." She didn't even have to think before responding,

"Yes. The answer is yes." He slid the ring onto her finger.

Maggie Scully used the key her daughter had given her to gain access to the new house, and Walter Skinner followed her to the kitchen, where he stopped short at the sight of Dana sitting on her kitchen counter, making out with Fox, who was busying himself with his hands up her shirt. She had her hands in his hair. Maggie, totally unfazed, put her hands on her hips and cleared her throat. Scully looked up at her mother, but Mulder continued to kiss her neck, though he did remove his hands from under her shirt. Totally horrified at the sight of her mother and former boss standing in the entryway to her new kitchen, she grew redder and kicked Mulder in the knee. He looked into her eyes, and she raised her eyebrows. He looked toward the doorway and said, 

"Oh."

"Hi, Mom," Scully said, knowing her skin color matched her hair. 

"You two never give it a rest, do you?" Maggie quipped with a laugh. 

"Where's Will?"

"Sleeping in the car. Seeing all the animals tired him out," Maggie replied. 

"Did you have any trouble with him?" Mulder asked, running his fingers up and down Scully's back. 

"Not at all. He was an angel." Mulder felt Dana tense and saw the look of pain in her eyes. 

"Well, that's good..." she squeezed his forearm and. "I hope you don't mind watching him some more, because my water just broke." 

-X-

"If you don't get your ass over here right this instant, Fox Mulder, so help me God..." The threat came out as a scream. Down the hall, Maggie grew a little pale. She'd never had the pleasure of witnessing her daughter in labor. 

"Breathe through it, sweetheart. We'll get through this," he said, feeling *very* unsure of himself around her.

"We?! What *we*?! I don't see *you* passing something with a head the size of a goddamn cantaloupe out of a ten centimeter orifice in *your* body. And that's for a moment forgetting that I have to do this *twice*. All because of you, you, you...ow ow ow ow ow ow," she said, gritting her teeth. 

At the end of the hall, A.D. Skinner lost all coloring from his face. Even with the door closed, he could still hear Scully's insults loud and clear. He felt instantaneous pity for Mulder. He was at the mercy of a woman who was delivering twins, the natural way, and she'd just been told that she'd progressed too much to have an epidural. The contraction ended, and Scully could only sputter, 

"...you...bastard."

"I love you too, sweetheart," she said, kissing her forehead. 

"Don't give me this 'I love you' crap. You're only saying that because you know that I can't get off this damn bed and come after you while my *uterus is contracting*." Dr. Glass grinned at Mulder sympathetically, having four children of his own, and having been witness to over two hundred deliveries.

'"Time to push, Dana. Are you ready?"

"*Yes*. Just get these kids *out of me*." 

"Just a few more, Dana," Mulder said, echoing the doctor's statement. 

"Shut up. Shut up. Shut up. I heard the doctor, *Fox*. I'm pregnant, not deaf," Scully growled, tightening her grip on his hand. 

"You're doing wonderfully," he said, trying to ignore the fact that he was going numb from the wrist down in his right arm. Scully looked at him and took her right hand, pulling his face close to hers via his hair. 

"Just. stop. talking." She stopped berating him momentarily to take a deep breath and push. 

"Already, Dana. Almost there. Two more," Dr. Glass said, glancing up at his patient.

"You said that five pushes ago!" she shouted.

"I promise, this time, you've only got two left. And once the first baby's out, the second will only take two or three pushes to get out. Alright? Let's do this." Scully nodded, not having much of a choice in the matter. 

True to his word, two pushes later, Scully screamed in pain and frustration as a newborn's cry joined hers. One glance told them he was a Mulder, with a mop of brown hair on his head, and enormous feet, and one moment of listening to his cries told them that he was pissed off, and he'd inherited his mother's set of lungs. 

"It's a boy!" the doctor called, letting Mulder cut the cord. Scully had released her grip on his hand and hair. The nurses took him over to clean him up, and Scully's joyous smile was wiped off her face.

"Ow ow ow ow." Dr. Glass turned his attention back to her. 

"Contraction?" 

"No, the little brat's kicking me!" she said, wincing. 

"Ready for round two, Mr. Mulder?"

"Ready when you two are," Mulder said, hesitantly offering his hand to Scully. She took it and applied a great pressure to it. 

"Here we go," Scully said, and took a deep breath. Two pushes later, it was back to the aggravated scream of pain, and a second pissed off Mulder child joining the world. 

"And another boy!" Dr. Glass said, and Mulder cut the cord before returning to his wife's side. 

"You did a wonderful job, Beautiful." She smiled at him. 

"Thank you. You did a great job too. I'm sorry I yelled at you," she said, trying to get her breathing to return to normal. 

"It's alright. You were in amounts of pain that I can't even begin to imagine," he said, kissing her forehead and brushing a few sweat soaked strands of hair out of her face. 

"I love you," she said quietly, her eyes on their newborn sons across the room.

"I love you too."

Mulder moved slowly down the hallway toward the sleeping Maggie Scully, who held Will, who was also sleeping, on her lap. Skinner was pacing up and down the hall, but stopped when he saw Mulder, clad in blue scrubs, his hair sticking up on one side, slowly approaching carrying two blue-blanketed bundles. He walked toward Mulder without bothering to wake Maggie. 

"This is Weston Alexander," Mulder said quietly, indicating the child on the left, who was sound asleep, his brown hair permanently mussed like his father's. His dimple was visible in his left cheek as he slept. 

"And this is Charleston Michael," he said, indicating the other infant, who was wide awake. His bright blue eyes were clearly inherited from his mother, but it appeared that every other facial feature he had came from his father. The only way to tell the twins apart was that Weston's dimple was in his left cheek, and Charleston's was in his right. 

"Congratulations," Skinner said, smiling at Mulder, who couldn't help but smile back.   
"What...uh, what happened to your hair?"

"Dana used it to get her point across." 

"Oh." 

"Yeah...Sir, will you wake Maggie for me? Dana wants to see Will, and her mother. She wants the two of them to meet the twins together."

Mulder entered Scully's hospital room, and handed Charleston to her. 

"My brothers better damn well be honored," she said, in a soft tone as she stroked Charleston's cheek. "We've got a kid who, as far as Bill knows, is his namesake, and Charlie has a nephew named after him too." She looked up at her fiance. It took a moment for her to think of him that way. Fiance. Finally, after all those years... 

"They're beautiful, aren't they?" she asked, in awe of her children, just as she had been of William. 

"They really are," Mulder replied, and kissed her on the cheek. 


	5. Chapter 5

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Title: Chapter 5- A Repeat Performance

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Author: Gillian Leigh

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Disclaimer: I don't own them. I just do this because I have nothing better to do when it's forty degrees outside in June. 

-X-

Fox Mulder chased his twin sons around their home, various articles of clothing in each hand. The terrible twos had hit the Mulder family hard. His wife stood in the kitchen, making sandwiches for her four favorite men. She laughed at the sight of the twins running past her, stark naked, and skidding to a halt when they realized she was in the kitchen. They ran and hid behind her denim-clad legs, giggling like maniacs. 

"Dr. Dana, have you seen two very bad, naked little boys? They go by the names Charleston and Weston?" Dana smiled at her husband. 

"Are *Charleston Michael* and *Weston Alexander* Mulder missing again?" she asked. Even at two, Charlie hated being called by his given name, especially when his _middle_ name was used. 

"No! Not Charleston! Charlie! Charlie!!" Little Charlie, ever the one to ruin the hiding, called out in his adorably high pitched voice. Weston elbowed him and whined, 

"Char-leee!"

"Sowwy," he responded. Mulder scooped both of them up and took them off to dress them. Dana turned green around the edges after getting a whiff of her husband's aftershave, and ran off to the bathroom. She was still throwing up when Mulder returned, a twin under each arm, and stopped short at the sounds of her being ill. Will had followed his father downstairs and said, 

"Daddy, is Mommy sick?"

"I guess so, pal. Go take your brothers into the living room to play, okay?" Will nodded, and took the lead; Weston and Charlie following him like ducklings followed their mother. He knocked on the bathroom door, and stuck his head in. His wife was leaning on the sink, staring into her reflection.

"Are you alright?" Mulder queried. 

"Yeah. I think so," she said. He was a little surprised when she didn't offer her standard response of 'I'm fine'. 

"Is there something you haven't told me?" She stepped into his arms, and nodded her head against his chest. 

"What is it?" he asked, feeling his heart beat faster. He could only pray that it wasn't cancer. She mumbled something into his chest, and he held her away from him a little so he could hear her.

"What?"

"I'm pregnant," she said with a sigh.

"Oh," he replied, all other words failing him. She nodded solemnly. 

"I found out two weeks ago, and I've been trying to figure out how to tell you."

"I guess our plan of not having any more kids has been foiled," Mulder said with a laugh. 

"Well if you think about it, we've never *planned* on having any of our children. So far, both conceptions were accidental, and unexpected," she said, smiling a little.

"Well at least we're keeping with tradition." Dana rolled her eyes. "Hey, what's a fourth kid anyway? We dealt with three who were just over a year apart, and by the time the next one arrives, Charlie and Wes will be out of the terrible twos," she smiled at him. He got a devilish glint in his eye before responding, "And just think, we're one child closer to our Little League team."


	6. Chapter 6

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Title: Chapter 6- The Peace is Never Permanent

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Author: Gillian Leigh

****

Disclaimer: Don't own them...just borrowing them....please please please don't sue me.

"Fox, stop it," Dana said, leaning to one side to see the TV. 

"You have no idea how cool this is," Mulder said, balancing a candle on the enormous mound which was occupying the space where her waist used to be. He watched with fascination as the candle jumped and then tipped over. He marveled at how the baby would kick at anything that touched his wife's stomach. He slid the remote out of her hand and laid it atop her stomach. It immediately began to jump, but before the baby could knock it off, Dana snatched it and glared at him. 

"I'm starting to bruise," she said. It seemed that there was barely enough room in there for one baby, he still couldn't figure out how the twins, who were uncharacteristically large for twins, (6 lbs each), managed to fit inside her. 

"Don't you have to go to work?" she asked, channel surfing aimlessly.

"Nope. Federal Holiday, they don't need me at Quantico. So I get to drive you crazy all day with pregnancy questions," Mulder said, grinning devilishly and kissing her cheek. 

"So do you think you'll even the score with this one?" he asked, in reference to Pod Person No. 4. She rolled her eyes as she looked up at him. 

"Even if this baby *is* a girl, you guys would still outnumber us four to two." 

"But all she'll have to do is give me one look with her baby blues, and I'll melt. She'll get everything out of me that she could ever want," he said. 

"You seem sure that this baby is a girl." 

"And you're not?" he queried, doing a poor imitation of the 'Scully-Eyebrow-Arch'.

"No. As a matter of fact, I can pretty much guarantee that this one's a boy," she responded, rubbing her stomach in circles were the baby was kicking. 

"How?"

"I've gained weight at the same time throughout this pregnancy that I did with the twins, and Will, in the same places. I have all the same cravings; vanilla ice cream and red peppers, chocolate, chocolate, chocolate, pickles on pizza, sweet potatoes with Hershey's syrup. And this one kicks just like the boys did," she said wincing. "I just wish he would calm down in there." Mulder turned her so that her back was facing him, and he massaged her lower back with his thumbs, rubbing in circles.

"Mmm," Dana sighed. "That feels *wonderful*." 

"How long has it been since we've had the house to ourselves?" he asked, kissing her neck. 

"Far too long," she replied, repositioning herself so she could kiss him back. He smiled at his wife. 

"Dana Katherine, how is that even when you yourself admit to feeling unattractive, and you're wearing *my* sweatpants, you are the most seductive thing I've ever seen?" She shrugged her shoulders. 

"It's a gift," she replied, her lips descending on his. He laughed. 

Just when things were starting to get interesting, when the phone rang. 

"Hello," Scully said, trying not to giggle as Mulder kissed her neck. 

"Dana?" her mother questioned, sounding as if she'd been crying. 

"Mom? What is it?"

"It's Will." Scully's heart raced. 

"W-what happened?" Mulder froze. 

"He's got a really high fever, and the doctors think..." she paused, trying to keep the tears out of her voice. "That he might have gone into a coma."

"What hospital?"

"Georgetown Memorial." Scully cut off anything else her mother might have had to say when she hung up the phone.

"What's wrong?" Mulder asked, feeling panicked. Scully looked at him, her expression a mixture of numb shock and fright as tears slid down her cheeks. 

"It's Will. He's gone into a fever-induced coma."


	7. Chapter 7

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Title: Chapter 7- X-Rays and a Hospital Room 

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Author: Gillian Leigh

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Disclaimer: See an earlier installment...

Mulder paced up and down the halls, feeling as though he would be sick again. The first thing his wife had done when she got in the room with Will was to check the back of his neck for a bump like the one Emily had had. When she'd discovered it, he'd run from the room and thrown up. 

He couldn't let this happen to her again. Not with a second child who would live to see its fourth birthday. There had to be a way to fix this, to make Will better. Another question that plagued him as he paced aimlessly through the hallways, was what if their other children were affected? What if they had the same thing that killed their sister and would most likely kill their brother too? The Gunmen, having received Scully's frantic call, approached Mulder with caution. 

"Mulder?" Frohike said, gently. Mulder lifted his head, and the trio could see that he had been crying. 

"What should we do?" Byers asked. 

"Pray," Mulder said, his response surprising all of them. He took a deep breath and said, "Dana needs DNA tests run on the boys' blood."

"Even the twins?"

"Yes. We need to know if all of them are affected. The baby as well," he said, massaging his temples. The three looked at him strangely, and he added, "Dana thinks that Will has what Emily died from, and any abnormality should show up in blood test and DNA test results." The three men embraced their weary friend, and he led them down the hall to Will's room, where Maggie sat beside his bed, and Skinner sat beside her, rubbing her back. 

"How is he?" Mulder asked. "Has there been any change?" Maggie shook her head tearfully. Mulder nodded, not about to mince words. 

"Where's Dana?"

"Off talking to one of the doctors. This is killing her, Fox," Maggie said, and cringed at her choice of words. 

"It's killing me too, Mom, more than you'll ever know. If he doesn't make it through this, I'll never be able to live with myself," Mulder said, his voice breaking. Maggie rose from her chair, and hugged him, choking back a sob. 

"It's not fair. First Emily, and the two of you thinking you couldn't have children, and now to have Will sick like this..." Maggie said. 

"I'm just praying that Dana and The Gunmen figure out what's causing this and what we can do to stop it." He paused. "Mom, where are Wes and Charlie? Dana needs them here to do testing on them."

"Monica Reyes is babysitting them at my house." Mulder nodded and left the room, but not before laying a gentle kiss on Will's perspiration covered forehead. The Gunmen followed Mulder, but hung back slightly, not knowing what to do or say. They froze when they heard the sound of a doctor talking, and Scully responded in her 'clinical voice' before bursting into tears. Mulder sprinted around the corner and caught his wife as she looked ready to fall to the floor in a crumpled heap. The doctor stood back in shock, and Mulder looked up at the menagerie of x-rays that were posted, half of which belonged to Will, the other half had been Emily's. His heart sank when he saw that they were identical. 

"Fox, I'm so sorry," she muttered, crying into his chest. 

"Why? Dana, this isn't your fault," Mulder argued, trying to comfort her. He pulled her into his lap on the cold tile floor, and looked at the doctor, who excused himself. 

"It has to be. This happened to Emily and William, and I'm the only common link between the two of them, Fox. You weren't Emily's father, but I was her mother. There's no way you could have caused this," she said, trying to calm the kicking of their fourth child, whose fate was suddenly so uncertain.

"But sweetheart, Emily didn't grow in your womb, she developed elsewhere. You don't know how they could have manipulated your ova while they were outside your body."

"Well, somehow I got them back, didn't I? How else would we have been able to have Will? They could have manipulated them before putting them back in me. Who knows what's wrong with them?" she said, her tears subsiding momentarily. 

"How long do we have to find a cure?"

"A week, two at most, before....we lose him," she said, barely able to choke out the words. 

"We'll find a cure, Dana."

"We've got no choice."

"When are they doing the blood tests on the three of them?"

"This afternoon. They're doing a sonogram first, and then they'll test the baby too," she replied. "Help me up?" She extended her hand, and Mulder helped her rise to her feet, not even wanting to know what this was doing for her stress level and her pregnancy.

"What do we do after they draw the blood?"

"We wait," she responded, turning to the panel of x-rays. 

"And how soon until we have a possible cure?"

"That I don't know..." she said, sighing as she tightened her grip on his hands. 


	8. Chapter 8

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Title: Chapter 8- The Waiting Game

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Author: Gillian Leigh

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Summary: The time has come to take the blood samples and see what can be done to save Will, Weston, Charlie, and the unborn Mulder child. 

-X-

Scully was still trying to get her heart rate to return to normal and find something to eat that she could keep down. It wasn't that she was ill, or that it was late pregnancy morning sickness, she'd cried and then thrown up when they'd taken blood from the twins, who were coherent, and cried hysterically, reaching for her and Mulder the entire time. Weston actually bit the doctor, and if she hadn't been so upset about everything else that was occurring, she could have laughed at her son. But not while his older brother was comatose down the hall, and his life, and his siblings' lives hung in the balance. Once Monica had gotten the twins calmed down enough that they slept in the other bed in Will's room, Mulder and Scully headed up two floors for the sonogram. Maggie hadn't left Will's bedside though her daughter protested, as though she felt some responsibility for his condition. 

'If only I'd caught his fever earlier...' she'd uttered her concerns to Walter Skinner, who refused to leave her side as long as she stayed at the hospital. It *was* true that romance could spring up in the weirdest places. The rhythmic beeping of Will's heart monitor put Maggie to sleep, but even when she closed her eyes, she kept seeing her ailing grandchild, with the oxygen tube in his nose, the IV in his arm, his pallid skin covered with sweat, the paper gown that hung limply on his lifeless-looking form. 

At the same time, two floors up, Mulder helped hoist Scully up onto the examination table so the doctor could perform the ultrasound. The conductive jelly had been applied, and the image of their child popped up on the screen. 

"The baby is perfectly healthy," Dr. Beecher said, smiling nervously at the two of them. "Heart rate is strong, you could have this baby any day from now forward and she would be fine." Scully looked up quickly at the doctor. 

"Did you say 'she'?" Dr. Beecher looked embarrassed. 

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to let that one slip," she said.

"No, it's alright. We agreed this morning that we wanted to know. We *needed* to," Mulder said, kissing his wife's hand, which still firmly held his.

"I was so sorry to hear about William. I hope everything works out," she said, using a cloth to clean off Scully's stomach. 

"Thank you," she said, almost inaudibly. 

"Can you take the sample?" she asked, a hand resting on her exposed stomach. 

"Yes. But you're going to be on bed rest for 10 hours following the procedure, or it could send you into early labor, which isn't something you want."

"I thought you said the baby would be perfectly fine," Mulder interjected.

"But if Dana goes into early labor, she'll be off her feet for days, and complications are more likely to ensue the earlier she goes into labor," Dr. Beecher said, heading over to the cabinet and putting on sterile gloves. 

"And if I'm off my feet, I can't run these tests as quickly. Will might run out of time before we find an answer," Scully interjected. The doctor joined them, holding a monstrous syringe. 

"Your wife is right, Mr. Mulder. Now, during this procedure, it is very important that Dana not move, or even flinch."

"It might be best if you left, Fox. If you make a face, I could move, and the placenta or amniotic sac could rupture, and we could lose the baby, or I could go into early labor," Scully said, squeezing his hand. He looked concerned. 

"I've had this done before, Fox. Don't worry about me. You can wait right outside the door, and the doctor will send you in when she's done," Scully said, smiling weakly at him. He nodded, and kissed her forehead. 

"I'll be right outside," he said before leaving. 

Mulder paced up and down the hall, kneading his forehead with his knuckles. He'd never had more anxiety in his life, even after being on the X-Files for eight years, seeing his wife disappear once, battle cancer, being compromised by many people he thought he could trust, disappearing himself... All that stress, fear and pain didn't even amount to what he felt at that particular moment. 

"Mr. Mulder? Mr. Mulder," Dr. Beecher said, touching his shoulder. Your wife's procedure is finished, and she'd like to see you." 

Eighteen hours later, Scully was still in the lab, having secluded herself in there with the Gunmen, for six hours. Mulder sat by Will's beside, holding his son's hand, and fighting back tears. He prayed, something he hadn't done before. He prayed that his wife's brilliance would shine through, and she'd discover a cure. He prayed that their twin sons and daughter wouldn't be affected. He heard the door slide open behind him, and saw his wife standing in the entryway, wearing a lab coat, carrying a folder, and crying buckets-full of tears. 


	9. Chapter 9

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Title: Chapter 9- Results and Revelations  
**Author**: Gillian Leigh  
**Summary**: The results are in....

-X-

He was on his feet in an instant, knowing the worst was to come. 

"They all have it?" he asked, though it was more to the tune of statement rather than question. 

"The twins have it, Fox..." She paused, looking ready to cry again. "But the baby doesn't. She's *perfect*." She smiled, and he wrapped his arms around her. He was glad their daughter would be safe, but he was not ready to lose 3/4 of his children. 

"Have you figured out how to cure it?" he asked, kissing the top of her head. 

"No, but I'm working on it. I've got the Gunmen running every hunch I can come up with, and I've got their blood samples under every available microscope. We're going to beat this. I can feel it," she said, stepping over to the bed and kissing Will's forehead. 

"Mommy and Daddy are going to save you, Will. I promise," Scully said, stroking his forehead. She kissed Mulder again before heading back to the lab. 

Scully's vision blurred as she looked through the microscope. She was exhausted, but it wasn't quitting time yet. She wasn't going to stop until she found a cure. She was going to save her sons; there was no other possibility. 

"Scully," Byers said from across the room. She looked up at him as he approached. 

"Yes?"

"I got specific orders from Mulder on my last visit to the vending machine. He wants you to eat this." Scully smiled and fought back a laugh when Byers handed her two bananas, an apple, and a salad, with a bottle of water. 

"That man..." she cut herself short, when just thinking of Mulder gave her an idea. 

"That's it!" she said, setting down her food before running from the lab. Mulder was on his way back from the cafeteria with a cup of coffee when he saw his heavily pregnant wife sprinting down the hallway toward him, with the tails of her lab coat flying straight out behind her. 

"What is it?"

"It's you... It's us. I can't believe I didn't think of this before..." she said, taking his hand and pulling him down the hallway. 

"Didn't think of what, Dana?"

"Obviously what the kids have has to be genetic, right?"

"Right."

"So then either one, or both of us would have to carry the gene."

"Yeah..."

"And because the baby doesn't have it, my guess is that it is sex-linked or recessive." Mulder looked at her, getting slightly confused.

"If its in their blood, it should be in our blood," she said, quietly, leading him through the door. He finally understood. 

"I need to take a sample from you, and then one from myself," she said, seating him on a stool. Byers, Langly, and Frohike looked at her questioningly. 

"It's genetic. She needs a blood sample," he said, as a frenzied Scully pulled on gloves and grabbed a syringe out of a supply closet. 

"Are you allowed to use that stuff, Scully?" Frohike questioned. Scully glared at him. 

"I wouldn't piss her off, Frohike, I think she's got enough stuff in that closet to kill the three of us and make it look like an accident," Langly said, intently studying the computer screen. 

"Yeah, she may be pregnant, but she could still kick your asses," Mulder added. Scully grinned at him.He winced as she took the sample, but he got over it, and then she got a fresh syringe and a pair of gloves and took her own. Mulder cringed. 

"How in the hell do you do that to yourself?" he asked. Langly looked up and rolled his eyes. 

"She cuts up dead people for a living, and you're amazed that she can draw her own blood? Please," he said, shaking his head. 

"I used to cut up dead people for a living. Now I'm a doctor, but I'm on maternity leave. I work strictly on the living," she said, bandaging her arm. "But now, I need to run some tests so we can figure out how to save our sons." Her comment brought their attention back to the somber matter at hand. 

"Fox, please go keep an eye on Will, and try to get some rest. It could be another twenty four hours before we have an inclination as to how to *begin* solving this problem." He nodded, and left without another word, leaving his wife to her microscopes and biochemistry. 

Less than fifteen minutes later, Scully was eating her dinner and fighting a losing battle with her eyelids. She laid her head down on the table next to her microscope, and resolved to take a short nap. The Gunmen were also slumbering peacefully in their chairs, and Frohike's soft snoring lulled her to sleep. 

Scully awoke to the feeling of being carried, and when the images in front of her sleepy eyes stopped swimming, she saw that it was her husband who carried her. 

"Fox? What're you doing? I need to get back to work," she mumbled sleepily. 

"You need to sleep," he said, kissing her forehead. 

"No," she said, growing more coherent. "I need to find a cure, Fox. Our son is going to *die* without a cure," she said, tears threatening to fall. He relented and put her down. 

"Dana, you should really get some sleep," he said, his fingers tracing soft circles on her back. 

"I'll sleep soon, Fox," she said, pressing her hands to her lower back. She was already regretting sleeping hunched over at the table in the lab. "What time is it?"

"Just after three in the afternoon," Mulder replied. 

"Damn it. I slept for four hours. I need to get back to the lab, and figure this out," she said, lingering a moment in his embrace before walking away. He knew as well as she did, that she made herself detached and impersonal, as did he, so that their emotions didn't get in the way until the last possible moment. Hopefully by then this would be solved.

Three hours later, Scully had a revelation, and in an instant, a resolution. She gasped, and the burst into tears. Byers, the only one in the lab with her at the time, rushed to her side. 

"What is it?"

"I've found the answer," she said. "Look through that microscope." While he did, she pulled something up on the laptop. 

"I-I don't know what I'm supposed to be seeing," Byers responded honestly. 

"That doesn't matter. Byers, the gene that causes this virus, the take-over of the body, is sex-linked and recessive. Mulder carries it on his Y chromosome, and I carry it on one of my X's. That's why the boys have it, and our daughter doesn't. They had to have inherited the infected X and the infected Y to get the disease. The baby isn't even a carrier, which means that she got my uninfected X. Her stem cells could be used to eradicate the virus from her brothers."

"Bone marrow transplant," Byers said, finally understanding. 

"When I placed a drop of the baby's blood on the slide with Will's blood, the antibodies started fighting his disease, and killed it off." 

"But how are you going to get the stem cells in time?" he asked. 

"That's what I need to talk to Dr. Beecher about...inducing labor," she said, wrapping her arms around Byers. "I have to go save my boys."

Author's Notes: Sorry this one took a while... my computer hates my guts, and has a habit of freezing whenever I try to upload anything. I'm not a doctor or nurse.. so everything may not be totally accurate, or totally realistic, but hey, this *is* the X-Files...we can go out on limbs now and then, and I have a right to use my artistic license. :op Hope you like it. (More to come) Feedback Appreciated -twistedmoonbeam8@hotmail.com


	10. Chapter 10

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Title: Chapter 10- The Waiting Game Part 2

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Author: Gillian Leigh

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Disclaimer: See an earlier installment...

"Ohhhhhhh, Fox it hurts," Scully said, huffing and puffing from her hospital bed. 

"Are they getting stronger? Or closer together?"

"Both," she said, resolving not to be nasty this time around. "We are *never* doing this again." Mulder smiled and kissed her forehead. They had induced labor eighteen hours ago, and Scully was forgoing all pain medication, just to be 100% sure that there would be no problems with the umbilical cord and placenta blood that would go to their sons. They were avoiding a C-section at all costs, because there would be a greater loss of blood, and it as easier to save it if Scully gave birth naturally. She just prayed there would be enough for her three sons. If not, she could find herself becoming pregnant with another genetically perfect little girl, in order to save Wes and Charlie. 

Dr. Beecher, and Will's doctors, Dr. Jenson and Dr. Barman, were all going to be present for the delivery. Will was already prepped for the transplant, but they had to wait to do anything for the twins. They had to determine how much blood was left. Dr. Barman had already warned that, though there might be blood left to give the twins, they might need another separate transplant later on. 

"Would you do this again, for Wes and Charlie?" She looked up at him. 

"Of course. I wouldn't hesitate for a moment to go through this another time for them."

"Well, we'd be forgoing tradition if we were trying to get pregnant, but there's a first time for everything, I guess," he said. She smiled at him before another contraction hit. She screamed, and Dr. Beecher said, 

"Well, I think Dana's subtly letting us know that it's time to push." The two male doctors chuckled, and Scully resisted the urge to regress to swearing like the sailor's daughter that she was. She couldn't stop herself from hurling a few obscenities, and the doctors immediately shut up. 

"That's my girl, Dana," Mulder whispered and grinned as Scully got the go-ahead to push. She only pushed a half a dozen times before a fourth Mulder child entered the world, kicking and screaming, letting everyone know that she was cold, and tired, and she wanted to go back to where it was warm. There was a scurry to save the umbilical cord blood, and the placenta, which meant that Mulder couldn't cut the cord. After a few minutes, they handed the baby to Scully. To their surprise, she had red hair covering her scalp in a fine layer. 

"What're you going to call her?" Dr. Beecher asked, checking on her patients. 

"Ava. Ava Faith Mulder," Scully said, kissing her daughter's tiny hand. 

"She's beautiful. Now, Fox, if you'll come with me, Dr. Barman and Dr. Jenson are ready in the OR. I promise you can see your wife and daughter again soon. Dana, we'll wheel you up to see William in a little while, alright?" Dr, Beecher stated. Scully nodded, torn between joy because their son would be saved, and panic, because they might not have enough blood for Charlie and Wes. 

All that was left to do was to wait, and pray. 

A/N: Sorry this one is so short. It's finals time again, and I'm losing my mind! I promise that as soon as they're over I'll post more. I've got a couple stories I'm working on at once.. so we'll see how that goes...Thanks for sticking with me! (Look for 11 and 12 soon!)


	11. Chapter 11

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Title: Chapter 11: Finally a Little Closure (no creativity, I know, but bear with me, people, it's finals time again!)  
**Author**: Amanda "Gillian Leigh" Rosemergy

"Hi, Mom," Scully whispered when Maggie appeared in the doorway of her hospital room. Maggie's face lit up at the sight of her daughter and newest grandchild. 

"She's gorgeous," Maggie said, lifting the blanket so she could see Ava's face. "What're you going to call her?"

"Ava," Scully replied, stroking the baby's cheeks. 

"She's so tiny, Dana," Maggie said, examining one of Ava's hands.

"She weighed even less than the twins. 5 lbs, 5 oz." Scully paused. "She doesn't know how much of a miracle she is for this family. She can't understand how special she is." Maggie nodded. 

"Well, she wouldn't be the same kind of miracle if you hadn't figured out how the gene was passed." Scully's smile did not hide her fear. 

"I can't help feeling that this is my fault. I never thought this could happen, but maybe I should have seen it coming. It happened to Emily, I don't know why I thought it wouldn't happen to my other children," Scully said, shifting Ava as she repositioned herself on the bed. Maggie sighed, and put her hand on her daughter's shoulder. 

"Dana, this isn't your fault. You can't help what's in your genes," she said, trying her best to smile, but not doing a good job of it. 

"I just can't understand why these things are still happening. It's not fair," she said, sighing exhaustedly. 

"I wish I knew, sweetheart," Maggie said, and kissed her daughter on the forehead. "Why don't you let me take Ava, and I'll put her in her bassinet so you can get some sleep."

"No, Mom, it's alright. I'd rather have her here with me," Scully said, leaning back and closing her eyes. "I want to have her near me while Fox and the boys are gone." Maggie nodded, understandingly. 

"I'll be just down the hall if you need me," she said, stepping out of the room. Scully watched the door close behind her mother, and then glanced down at her daughter, who was sound asleep. She was content just to marvel at the simple beauty, the magnificence of Ava until the fact that she had had only four hours sleep in the past thirty six hours caught up with her, and in moments she was sound asleep.

Halfway through Will's procedure, Mulder was informed that there would be enough blood to perform the procedure....on *one* of the twins. He would have to choose, but he couldn't do it alone. He opened Scully's hospital room, and had to stop himself from launching into a panicked explanation of what was going on when he saw that she was sound asleep with the baby in her arms. 

Sinking into the chair beside her bed, his fingers barely brushed her forehead before her eyes fluttered open. Apparently the sleep wasn't as sound as it had seemed. 

"What is it?" she asked, her brows knitting together. "Is everything okay?" He shook his head, doing his best to keep the tears out of his eyes. Her eyes widened and glistened with tears, but she didn't speak.

"They only have enough blood to do the operation on one of the twins. We have to choose." Her face dropped.

"No," she said, adamantly. "I will not choose one of our children over the other. No."

"Then what are we supposed to do, Dana? They'll die if we don't have the procedure done," he said, feeling defeated. 

"We can't quit, Fox. If we quit, they win."

"But...what options do we have?" he questioned, the dull ache in his head growing worse. 

"We'll wait. They can freeze the cord blood; it's a new procedure. It'll keep for as long as it's frozen."

"That still leaves only enough blood for one twin. Freezing it won't change that. How do we get more blood?" he asked, looking into his wife's eyes. She glanced down at Ava. 

"We'd need more of the perfect genetic makeup like Ava has." 

"But how?" 

"Do you really have to ask?"

"Another baby?" She shrugged.

"It's our only option," she replied, feeling her eyes welling with tears. Mulder sighed, cradling his head in his hands. 

"All I want is one normal day, Dana. Just one," he said, his voice cracking. She ran her fingers through his hair as her tears flowed more steadily. "Just one day where we don't have to worry about whether or not our children will live or die the death Emily did."

Mulder stood up abruptly and pulled the empty food tray with the metal soup bowl and plastic dinner tray on it off of its cart, and threw it against the far wall. Scully jumped at the crash and clatter, and Ava woke and began crying. Her mother, though she tried, couldn't adequately comfort her, because her nerves were so worn. She shushed her, and said quietly, 

"Shh, Ava, it's alright. Shh, baby. Mommy's here." Ava reached for Scully's hand, and began sucking on her index finger. 

"Damn it, Fox, you scared her. Hell, you scared me too. Look, I know how this is weighing on your nerves, and I know how frustrated and scared you are, but right now we need to be rational, and level headed. We need to be there for our kids," she said, sounding defeated. 

"I have to go back and check on Will. They said it should still be quite a while before his procedure is finished," Mulder said, unable to meet his wife's weary eyes. He left her room, and began walking, trying to ignore the migraine that was building behind his eyes, making him feel like someone was driving knives through them. He reached Will's room, and relinquished his place in the chair outside it. The stillness of the hospital was driving him crazy. 

The procedure was a success, but while Will's immune system rebuilt itself, he was in a hermetically sealed, germ free environment. His parents spent all the time they could with him, but it wasn't much. Maggie watched the twins, while Scully toted Ava around the hospital with her, while acting as Will's doctor and mother. Husband and wife took turns comforting, and being comforted, and finally after three weeks, Will was allowed to come home. 

x-X-x

Author's Notes: Have no fear, you haven't heard the last from me. You're *stuck* with me. I'm flying blindly through this story, and all the medical stuff I talk about I've either heard mentioned on TV (The X-Files or Trauma: Life in the ER, or Maternity Ward for that matter) or in my Biology class. Alright, this will probably be the last or second to last chapter posted for a matter of at *least* twelve days, because I have finals this week and I'm going on vacation the week after. I hope this one isn't so much of a cliffhanger. [Psst, I'm currently working on another one, an AU story...maybe I'll have some of it up before I leave. :o) ]


	12. Chapter 12

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Title: Chapter 12- Searching All Avenues

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Author: Gillian Leigh

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Disclaimer: I'm just borrowing them for the duration....(Did I mention that I'm not making any money from this?)

Scully stood in the lab, her sleeping daughter held to her chest in the baby-carrier, as she made full use of the hospitals laboratory facilities. Dr. Beecher stuck her head in the door. 

"Dana, aren't you on maternity leave?" 

"Maternity leave? What maternity leave? I've been here since two days after they released Will, and I don't intend on leaving until I find a way to cure the twins without having to get pregnant again," she said, peering through a microscope. 

"Where are your husband and the kids?" Dr. Beecher questioned, stepping into the lab, which was vacant except for Scully, and closing the door behind her. 

"Fox sent Will, Wes and Charlie with my mom, but they're such a handful that I offered to take Ava. She doesn't need a newborn to worry about while she's keeping track of those three. They're hell on wheels," Scully said, gently stroking the baby's cheek. 

"Are you glad you've finally got a girl?" 

"Considering that a few years ago I believed I could never *have* children, I've taken what I can get," she grinned. "But yes, I love her to death, and her father fully intends to spoil her rotten."

"It's unbelievable just how much she looks like you," Dr. Beecher -Anita, as she'd begun insisting the entire Mulder family call her- said, grinning. 

"Oh, Anita," Scully said, placing a hand on her hip. "I'd know that expression *anywhere*." Dr. Beecher looked a little taken back. 

"What expression? What are you talking about, Dana?"

"I saw the way you looked at Ava. That was the way I looked at my nephew when *I* first found out I was pregnant too." Dr. Beecher blushed a deep shade of red. 

"Am I that obvious?" Scully smiled. 

"Only to someone who's been through it numerous times," she replied, her smile growing wider. "How far along are you?"

"Almost four months." Dr. Mulder embraced Dr. Beecher in a one armed hug. 

"I'm so excited for you," Scully said, echoing a sentiment Monica Reyes had expressed to her upon finding out about the pregnancy which had given them Ava. 

"Thank you. Well, I'll leave you to your work, and if you need a break, my shift ends in a half an hour, and I'll gladly help in any way that I can," Dr. Beecher offered. Scully smiled at her. 

"We'll be fine. You should get off your feet for a while. As an obstetrician, you should know enough to be getting the right amount of rest." Dr. Beecher smiled another sheepish grin before exiting the lab. Scully turned back to her microscope, and began working with a renewed energy. She *would* find a cure. 

Author's Notes: Sorry it's so short... there's more to come!


	13. Chapter 13

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Title: Chapter 13- Again?!

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Author: Gillian Leigh

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Disclaimer: See an earlier installment if you really care...

Scully was eating a Snickers bar and downing her third cup of coffee while listening to Dr. Beecher give her the results of the latest series of blood tests run on her and her family. 

"Will's blood is still 100% normal, the twins are showing evidence of the gene, but the disease seems to be progressing much more slowly than it did in Will. It's almost totally stopped in fact; which means that smaller amounts of genetically perfect blood could be used to eradicate the disease. Ava's fine, and doing well for being born three weeks early. Fox's blood is normal; the trait for the disease is very well hidden. Your blood is normal, except for one thing..." Scully arched her eyebrow as she took another sip of her coffee. "...the presence of hcG." Scully choked on her coffee, and after recovering from her coughing fit, Dr. Beecher grinned at her and said, 

"Congratulations, Dana. Looks like the fourth time's a charm with the IVF. You're pregnant." Scully stood, totally stunned and silent for a minute. 

"I -uh- I have to go talk to Fox." She hurried out of Dr. Beecher's office, and toward the waiting room, where her husband sat in a chair, having left the blood test results to her, while he corralled the four kids. Ava slept in her carrier, and the boys were building monstrous castles from the piles of blocks that the hospital provided. 

Scully sank into the empty chair next to her husband and leaned her head on his shoulder. He kissed the top of her head. 

"Everything alright?" She nodded. 

"The disease is progressing very slowly in the twins, which could be because they came from one infected sperm and one infected egg, instead of two separate ones. Ava and Will are fine, and so are you." He noted that she left herself out of this little speech, and said, 

"What about you?" She looked up at him. 

"Me? Oh I'm fine. Pregnant, but fine." She was surprised to see none of the shock she'd experienced resounding in his expression. Instead he smiled. 

"You're not surprised?" she asked, sitting upright. 

"You're the one who's been up every morning throwing up, who's asked me for jalapenos and vanilla ice cream four times in the past two weeks, and who's had to make trips to the bathroom every half an hour, and *you're* surprised?" She blushed. 

"I guess I should have recognized the signs, but I couldn't accept it as a possibility because the last three IVF treatments had failed. So it looks like we're pregnant, again."

"Hey, what's a fifth kid," he said, jokingly. "Just another miracle to add to our growing list." Scully smiled. 

"I don't mind being pregnant, or having a baby around the house, it's just the in-between -the whole matter of just *how* we get them into the world- that I could do without." Mulder laughed, and kissed the top of her head before gathering the troops. 

-Nine months later-

"Dana, you shouldn't be on your feet," Maggie said as she watched her daughter toting Ava on her hip. Scully turned to her mother, and rolled her eyes. 

"Mom, it's Ava's birthday, and Fox is clueless. Who else is going to set everything up?" 

"I'm perfectly capable of handling birthday parties for my grandchildren," Maggie argued, taking the baby from Scully. "Besides, you should be off your feet. You're not scheduled to have labor induced until next week." Scully threw up her hands in exasperation, and gave an aggravated sigh before heading toward her bedroom and sinking into the bed. She was supposed to be on bed rest, because she'd been told that the pregnancy came with risks, and she was a week overdue. From her position in the upstairs bedroom, she heard a muffled thump, and then a wail. Ava. She was the only one who cried like that. In about a half a second, she was out of the bed and down the flight of stairs. She knelt down beside her mother, who was trying to console the hysterical child. Scully picked Ava up and held her in her arms. 

"What happened?" Scully asked of her mother, who was trying to calm herself down. 

"She was climbing onto the table, and she must've slipped on the chair and fallen down. She hit her head off of chair." 

"I need take her to the emergency room, Mom. She could have a concussion." 

"Dana, calm down," Mulder said, having heard all the commotion. 

"How am I supposed to calm down, Fox? Our daughter just fell off of our dining room table and onto the floor. She could have a concussion.. or worse. We need to get her to the...hospital," Scully said, her voice dropping to a whisper. 

"Dana, she's fine. Look, she's stopped crying and everything..." Scully grabbed his arm. 

"N-no... it's not that. I just felt a contraction." 

"We should wait a little while, just to see how close together they are. They're probably Braxton-Hicks again," Mulder said, remembering the previous labor episodes during the preceding two weeks. She shook her head. 

"I think once your water breaks, there's no way it can be false labor," she said, looking panicked. 

"Are you kidding?" he asked. 

"Do you think I would kid about this?! Get me a goddamn ambulance!" she shouted, still holding her daughter, who seemed 100% okay. Mulder returned a moment later, with the phone in his hand, looking panicked. 

"It's snowing like a bitch out there, and there was a ten car pile-up on the highway. They'll send the first available ambulance they have, but they don't know how long it could be." Scully shook her head. 

"No, no, no. I can't have this baby here. What if we lose the cord blood? Or if there are complications?! I could die, or the baby could. We've got to do something," she said, beginning to panic herself. Maggie took Ava, from Scully, and handed her to Skinner. 

"Day," Charlie said, stepping up from the back of the room. "Anne's a doctor too. She's got her bag in the car." Mulder was hoisting Scully up off the floor, and once he'd gotten her into a standing position, he slid his arm behind her knees and carried her like he often carried their children. Anne was Charlie's wife of five years, though the couple had no children, and she was a licensed general practitioner. 

"Oh God, Anne, please," Scully called from her husband's arms as he carried her upstairs. Anne nodded, and ran out into the snow to pull her medical kit from the car. Mulder set Scully down on their bed, and pulled off her shoes and stockings, which were soaked in amniotic fluid. Her long denim dress was also soaked, and Mulder helped her sit up while placing several pillows behind her. Mulder hurriedly ran into their bathroom and dampened a washcloth, which he used to wipe her forehead and cheeks with. 

"Fox, get Anne," she said, looking panicked again. 

"What is it?"

"Get Anne, I need to push," she said again, breathing through a contraction. "Anne!!" she screamed, and her sister-in-law entered the room, wearing gloves, and carrying several towels. 

"I'm here, Dana. I have to check and see if you're dilated enough to push," Anne said, and a moment later, the verdict was delivered. 

"Take a deep breath, Dana. This is going to be pretty quick." Scully nodded and did as she was told, with Mulder holding her hand.

The paramedics arrived a half an hour later, just in time to witness the fifth Mulder child, a girl, enter the world. Scully's doctors had informed them about the special circumstances, and they didn't cut the cord. They managed to bundle up mother and daughter, and load them into the ambulance. Mulder went to, leaving a houseful of guests who were still too stunned to do anything but sit in silence as they watched the three leave. 

Maggie knocked on the door, with Ava on her hip. She entered, followed by Skinner, who was carrying the twins, and Charlie and Anne, who had Will by the hands. Tara came in last, holding Matt. 

"Hi there," Maggie said, giving her daughter a kiss on the forehead. 

"Hi, Mom," Scully responded, sounding twice as exhausted as she looked. 

"How's everybody doing?" she asked, studying her new granddaughter, who had inherited her mother's hair, and nose, but she would most likely have her father's chin and eyes. 

"We're doing all doing just fine," Scully replied, smiling at her mother. "Thanks to Anne, that is." Anne turned a deep shade of red, and sheepishly smiled. 

"And we'd like you all to meet Anna Margaret Mulder." Anne began to cry when she realized that the baby was named after her, and she leaned into Charlie, who smiled at his sister over his wife's head, and mouthed the words, 

"Thank you." 


	14. Chapter 14

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Title: Chapter 14- Some of the 50 Most Beautiful  
**Author**: Gillian Leigh  
**Summary**: Aaaaaaaand the conclusion.. sorry if it's a little weak. I'm tired of writing.  
**Author's Notes **at the end of the chapter. 

-X- One year later -X-

In a coffee shop, a man picked up the latest issue of People Magazine; the 50 Most Beautiful People, and sat down at the nearest table, with a large cup of coffee, black with two sugars, and began to read. He instinctively flipped to the back of the magazine, and opened to a section of the aforementioned 50 Most Beautiful People. Seven of the spots were taken up by one particular family. Intrigued, he began to read. 

"The Miraculous Mulders: [They were, he noticed, the only ones to get an adjective in their headline] (From left to right): Fox Mulder, 42; his wife Dana, 37; their children, William, 5; Charleston, 4; Weston, 4; Ava, 2; and Anna, 1. 

"Fox and Dana Mulder, are two people we consider pioneers in the medical field. But not so long ago, he was simply a teacher at the FBI's Quantico Academy, and she was a general practitioner at Georgetown University Hospital. They were raising their eldest son William, and twin sons Charlie and Wes, and expecting their fourth child, when tragedy struck. William fell became deathly ill with something that his doctors had never seen and did not know how to treat. His mother and father, however, had seen this illness before, but though they knew what it was, they didn't know what to do to make it better. Years before William's birth, Dana had a daughter Emily from a previous relationship. Emily was seemingly healthy until she became very ill with a fever one day, and became a victim of a disease which affected her DNA. It was a cancer-like illness that none of her doctors, or other doctors the world over, had ever seen before. Emily lapsed into a coma and passed away less than a week later; she was four years old. 

"Dana Mulder, having full access to the medical laboratories at the hospital, set to work finding a cure for their son. The disease affected William's blood and DNA, just as it had his half-sister, Emily. Dr. Mulder realized that there was a great possibility that the disease was genetic, and she then performed tests on her twin sons, and her unborn child, (Ava) , whom she was eight months pregnant with at the time. When the results came back, they contained devastation and hope. Both Charlie and Wes were infected with the disease, but the unborn baby, the child who would be called Ava, was not. The trait was something that she carried on one of her X chromosomes, and he carried it on his Y, which is why only their male children were affected. This varies from carrier to carrier, because it is apparent that Emily's father carried the trait on his X chromosome. Because the illness is sex-linked and recessive, both the mother and father must be carriers for the child to have the illness, but if only one has the trait, the child can be a carrier. It was later found, that a sample of their daughter's blood, when placed in the same environment as their son's blood, began killing off the infected blood cells. They had discovered a cure. Labor was induced, and the cord and placenta blood were saved and used in a bone marrow transplant, which saved William, but another problem arose. There was not enough blood to perform the life saving transplants in both twins. Unwilling to choose between their children, the Mulders opted to wait, and freeze what cord blood they had. They realized that another genetically perfect child was their only option in ridding the twins of the virus. After a successful in-vitro fertilization, their daughter Anna was conceived, and after her birth, her cord blood was used to cure her brothers. What was left over was then fashioned into a vaccine which her parents were injected with to eliminate then trait they carried from their bodies. Through more laboratory work over the next year, Mr. and Dr. Mulder created and were able to produce a vaccine which effectively cured the illness now called, "Emily's Syndrome" which had been identified in less than ten children world-wide. Prior to the vaccine, how many children who died from the above ailment cannot be known. _For information on Emily's Syndrome, visit www.emilyssyndrome.com_

"Currently, the Mulders have regained the normalcy in their lives. Fox and Dana are living in rural Georgetown with their five children. 

Fox Mulder, paid for his coffee and the issue of People, of which they had several at home already, and left the coffee shop. Once he reached his home, he opened the door to find himself face to face with his wife, who was trying to get her sons to stop arguing and put a doll's head back on to cease her daughters' crying. She practically pulled him in the door before handing him a positive pregnancy test and saying, 

"I could kill you for this."

-le fin-

***Author's Notes**: Alright, I know the ending is a little....different, but I was so sick of this story that I just needed to finish it. And I know the timeline is *way* off, but we'll say that everything happened just like it did in the X-Files, but a few years earlier. Otherwise, Scully would have been 40-something and having Anna. So I just pushed everything back a little bit...artistic license, dontcha know. Alright, well I hope you liked it. I'm working on other stuff (of the AU persuasion) and I hope to have some of it posted soon. 


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